We are not a hated club by any stretch of the imagination.
Some Liverpool fans hate us because they believe they are the rightful champions - in fact we have won more, lost fewer, scored more and conceded less - that is a champion. Because they could not do it on the pitch, they believe we must have cheated. They are innocent of EVERYTHING.
Some United fans hate us because their era is done. They liked it when they could outspend everyone, breaking the British transfer record continually, and sought to limit our spending in any way they could. If I buy a house with a mortgage, have I bought it with my own money? No, I borrowed money from the bank to do it - it isn't my own. If I run a club with a half-billion-pound debt, have I done it with my own money? No, I owe someone. They have not won the league because their sporting strategy fell behind their desire to protect the brand, and they did so by buying big name players at inflated prices, paying them inflated wages. We have absolutely hammered them, in a sporting sense, and their arrogance stopped them from seeing it until it was too late.
It is no surprise that the allegation of these two clubs being behind the latest attack on us is so prevalent in the current conversation, and the fact that they vetted the new CEO of the Premier League, while other clubs had no place, is evidence of the murky world in which we operate. It is like David Gill and Rick Parry II, occupying places on the boards of FIFA and Uefa, while still engaged with their club roles - utterly mind-blowing.
The press earn more by having positive articles about those two clubs and, consequently, negative articles about their opponents. That is just the way it is and it is decades away from changing - the point at which worldwide City support is the equal of theirs - and it may never happen.
Other fans, generally, would much prefer us to win the league and trophies rather than those two, because they know that most of us know what it is like to fail, and know that winning trophies is not our God-given right.